23 March 2020 The Adventure Continues

The Adventure Continues

Yesterday, we dropped off the ten members of our team who came from the UK at the British research station Rothera on the Antarctica peninsula. It should be easier for them to get home quickly and easily from that location. After close to 60 days at sea together and all that came along with it - sediment, waves, ice, data, seals - it feels strange to still be out here on the ship without them.

The members of the NBP 20-02 Night Shift pose for a selfie on the bow of the R/V Nathaniel B. Palmer during their last night of team work on the cruise. Clockwise from the upper left corner: PolarTREC educator Sarah Slack, Asmara Lehrmann, Rachel Clark, Elaine Mawbey, Ali Graham, and Santi Munevar.

The rest of us are continuing on to Palmer Station, where we will spend a day picking up some members of the summer team (now that the summer season is officially over) and getting tours of their facilities. It will be my first time walking on solid ground in a month and a half and my first time seeing new faces in real life since late January. I can't wait to meet some people that haven't already heard the four jokes I know.

The Zodiac returns from Rothera after dropping off the UK members of the NBP team.

After we leave Palmer Station, we are headed to Chile. Because no one on the ship has had any contact with anyone other than people in Antarctica for over 60 days, we are considered "quarantined" and will be allowed to pull up to the dock in Punta Arenas. Folks at the Antarctic Support Contractor are doing everything possible to figure out the best way to get us all home. I'm really enjoying the trip north, as we hug the edge of the continent, with coastlines and mountains in sight from the deck of the ship. And the longer we linger here, the more time I have to mentally, physically, and emotionally prepare myself for another crossing of the Drake Passage - and for returning to a world that will be much, much different than the one I left back in January.

Photos of rock outcroppings along the Antarctic Peninsula seem like black and white images. From the deck of the R/V Nathaniel B. Palmer icebreaker.